Although paintball is indeed a team sport, this does not stop fans from chanting "one-on-one!" when a single player is left on both teams during a point. As much as we love the strategy and mind-blowing events involved in 3,5 and 7-man games, one cannot deny the equally-exciting occurrence of one player left on the field playing against another.

Why not explore the possibility of a pro 1-on-1 division? At its most primal level, human nature tends to lean toward favoring heroes, as evidenced by favorite athletes, all-star games, halls of fame and end-of-season trophies. It explains Boxing, pro-wrestling and UFC. Having a section of paintball that highlights player skill at the rawest possible level would attract non-player audiences who would otherwise find themselves unattached to a team of identical-looking masked players doing things for reasons they don't quite understand.

Advantages:

1) unlike mainstream sports, paintball CAN be played one-on-one and still be exciting

2) Easier to broadcast due to less simultaneous activity on the field; no more confused non-player viewers

3) Easier to officiate due to lack of multitasking needed by referees

4) Cheaper to officiate, due to reduced number of field-referees

5) Brand new marketing possibilities, as fan-favorite star players - some of which play on 3 different teams in 3 consecutive seasons - can now be shamelessly featured in their own right without being unfairly categorized as self-righteous "hired guns".

6) adaptive jersey design regulations open up a whole new form of artistic design, as the audience now needs only to see the player's name aside from league logo.

niether would x-ball if it were just 1-point = win game, but they fixed that pretty handily with the point system. just a thought. personally, i love it when a 1-on-1 occurs. It's a shame that its such a rarity because the cameras, announcers and instant-replay techs have literally ZERO problem covering it.

The players in that video can't be D1. I feel like this is D5. I end my 1 vs 1 in minute or less most of the time. If the guy doesn't snapshoot me, he will be bunkered. As I am watching the video I see a way the guy in the snake can easily bunker the guy in the standup without being seen at all. Sometimes I wonder if the coaches are really preventing this game from ending.

Here's an idea:
1v1 could be very boring like that video above but throw in some game changers such as introducing the next round immediately after someone is shot, for example:

A vs B, B gets eliminated, C goes in instantly to hunt down A
A & C duke it out for 5 minutes and no one gets eliminated -> D & E jump in to hunt each other or A or C. Repeat until the line up is done then rank players on how many rounds they played at and survived, reverse the line up and go for round 2.

Ever have someone hunt you down from front and back? Not a good place to be, so players would motivated to go for the kill before the other guys show up.

I'm sure there would be a couple things to work out to make this game work but it could be fun and intense.

i do like the idea of a dynamically-progressing bracket. it could work both on an individually represented level (see advantage 5 of original post) as well as with teams.

backtracking from the single-sponsored-player format for a second, the aforementioned "A goes down, put in B" format would be an interesting new type of 5-man. like a hybrid "1v1 team" or something. It's an old concept folks, baseball does this every day with batting order.